A Systematic Literature Review on Youth Empowerment and its Determinants

Despite the fact that many researchers highlighted the concept of youth empowerment and its determinants from different perspectives, absence of well-defined concept and determinants of youth empowerment reflects a general shortfall in available literature.This Systematic Literature Review (SLR) scrutinizes the determinants and the concept of youth empowerment in an attempt to understand it very straightforwardly.On the basis of 38 stringently screened studies of 176 identified articles, as per PRISMA guidelines, the evidence is synthesized in the review on concept and determinants of youth empowerment.As per the findings, several dimensions are found to have a significant role in conceptualizing youth empowerment.It encompasses access to economic resources, decent work, education, autonomy in decision-making, social support, psychological resilience, and overall well-being.This SLR also recognized four broad domains of determinants of youth empowerment.The economic empowerment is the first area and refers to economic resources, financial access, jobs, and the barriers to economic participation.The second domain, capacity enabling, focuses on the significance of education, skills development, access to digital technologies, and decision-making power in enhancing youth capabilities.Socio-economic responsibility encompasses the social network role, institutional support, gender sensitivity, and community environment role in enabling empowerment.Lastly, the wellness sphere encompasses psychological empowerment and overall health and well-being, emphasizing resilience, self-efficacy, and physical and mental health to survive adversity and seek opportunities.SLR thus presents an integrated framework of understanding how combined distinct factors shape and construct youth empowerment.